AKRON, Ohio – Tiger Woods said following his 2-under-par 68 in Thursday's first round of the Worlds Golf Championships-Bridgestone Invitational that he was progressing the way he had hoped to following back surgery.

He regressed Friday en route to shooting 71.

"I didn't hit the ball well. I didn't putt well. I didn't do anything well," Woods said after a round of three birdies and four bogeys. "The only thing I did well was I fought hard. Grinded hard. Unfortunately, it wasn't very good today."

The second round on the South Course at Firestone Country Club, where he has won eight times and is the defending champion after winning last year by seven shots, is just his eighth round since back surgery March 31.

Tied for 25th, Woods is 10 shots back of leader Sergio Garcia who shot a 61 on Friday.

Woods hit just four of 14 fairways as his driver again let him down, and he needed 30 putts with his balky putter. He even made bogey on the par-5 second hole. In 62 rounds, it was just his third bogey on that hole.

"It had bad speed, bad line. Other than that, it was all right," Woods said of his putting. "If I would have putted like I did yesterday, which is just normal, it's a 2, 3-under round. But I missed a bunch of putts under 15 feet, and they weren't even close, that's the problem. It's not like they had the go‑in look. They just weren't very good.

" … And it wasn't just the driver. It was just everything. I didn't hit it good in warmup. Sometimes it's just the warmup and then you go out and hit it great on the golf course. That wasn't the case today."

While discouraged as he left the grounds, Woods is encouraged where he and his formerly ailing back are right now. And he said he isn't out of the tournament, especially if bad weather arrives Saturday, which has already forced the PGA Tour to move tee times up.

"This is supposed to be my second tournament back, not my third. Everything's going pretty good," Woods said. "I've gotten a little bit better, and the good news is I'm still getting stronger. I've still got a long way to go as far as my strength and explosiveness compared to what I'm used to feeling, but all that's coming around.

" … I'm only 7 back. That's plenty doable on this golf course over the weekend. With the weather coming in tomorrow, I don't know what we're going to do, but I'll be ready.

"The way this golf course is set up right now, a bunch of guys are stacked up. It's going to be a varied bunch going into Sunday."

But it will be a tall task for Woods to catch Rose, the 2013 U.S. Open champion who won the Quicken Loans Invitational (which benefits Woods' foundation) and the Scottish Open in back-to-back weeks in July before finishing in a tie for 23rd in the British Open.

"My momentum started about a month ago," Rose said. "Seemed to be carrying it on nicely. Obviously, I'm feeling good about peaking at this time of year. Every week is big. You could argue a major championship in the middle of it all is the one you'd really love to peak for next week. But at the same time, there's not a bad golf tournament now for about two months."